I've been decorating for about a year so I'm still pretty new to all this. I saw the Cricut Cake and was so excited so I went out and bought one and I'm just now starting to play around with it and let me say it hasn't been easy. I'm still fine tuning getting fondant to cut without snagging or tearing. I'm using SI and find that it is sticky and soft like some other posts have mentioned. Last night I rolled out a sheet and let it set overnight (putting it in the freezer just made it sticky and didn't help much). I'm hoping today when I try to cut it, it won't tear or bunch up. But my other concern is, how do I get the fondant off the mat without messing up the design? I'm afraid if I allow the SI to dry too much it'll just crack and break when I try to remove it, but if it's too soft it loses its shape. And for the larger more intricate patterns how do you transfer those to your cake? I didn't find the DVD or instructions to be very useful in this area. Any suggestions or tips? I'm afraid I just wasted $300

You are using Satin Ice? I love Satin Ice to cover my cakes. , but if it is a very fresh Satin Ice, it is too soft for your Cricut Cake. Go get a box of the Wilton. Now some people add Tylose to their fondant to help it set up and cut better. I have not had to do this at all. Plus I don't put my in the freezer either. Here in Florida it would get sweaty and sticky. So what I do, is knead my fondant out in a little Crisco, not cornstrach. it would dry it out, but a little cornstrach might work for you. Not Much, just a little, Roll it out Slightly on the counter, then tranfer it to the Cricut Mat, which should have a slight coating of Crisco on it. Not much , just enought to adhere it. To much will make your fondant slip or tear as the Cricut Cuts. Set your Cricut Cake to 1 or 2 to cut slow speed. Depth of Cut to 3. Again Make sure your fondant is thin to the point you can almost see the lines on the mat thru it. Especially on intricate pieces. Let your fondant set -up on the counter on the Cricut mat for about 10 to 15 minutes or so. Cut. Unload, Use a very flat artist palate knife or etc to slowly , carefully remove. I love my cricut I have had no problems, Don't give up, it is a great machine, Good luck and Happy Cake Decorating

I tried the new Duff brand fondant last week. Even with 1 tsp Tylose in 1 pound fondant, it was very soft and would not cut. I ended up putting it in the freezer for just a couple of minutes, cut, freeze, remove some of cuts from mat, freeze, unmat...continue...

Also, be sure not to use too much (or too little) shortening. I was using the brush as they suggested, but got lazy and just rubbed it on with my fingers this time. For me this was much easier to control! I read somewhere in the myriad of hints that you don't want to see any white of the shortening on the mat.

HTH

I recently saw a demo of the cricut at my cake club meeting. She used gumpaste though, so I hope this still works. She greased (Crisco) the mat to get the gumpaste to stick to it. I'll have to ask her how she transferred it, but then she put it, grease side up, on thin craft foam and pushed corsage pins through the foam and into the gumpaste. Then she was able to hold up the foam and move the design around where she wanted it, placed it on the cake using the grease to adhere it to the fondant & removed the pins. She was even able to remove the design & reposition it.

Don't get discouraged orchid001982. I tried straight fondant the first time I used my Criket and felt the same way. It kept bogging up and pulling up the design. I packed it up and didn't touch it again for three months! Then I started reading forums and blogs with tips on products and techniques that worked for other cakers. Out came the Criket and things started to get better. I learned that very thin gum paste was by far the best medium to use. I took a mini class with Linda McClure a couple of months ago and everything became so much easier! If you get the chance, I strongly recommend that you take instruction from her. For $100 I got a day in class, a bound book of precise pictured instructions, her gum paste recipe, extra gum paste, and a CD with lots of great wedding cake designs ready to use in my Make the Cut program! I cut all the rose petals in the attached picture and everything (except microphone) used on the Hannah Montana cake with my Criket. The zebra stripes were a breeze, and more realistic, with the pattern Linda provided.

I worked out my own approach for applying them to the side of the cake. I removed the extra GP from the mat and let the stripes sit at room temperature to dry a bit so they would not lose their shape when I removed them. I cut a long piece of heavy vinyl cloth the thickness of my cake side. I use my finger to smear a small bit of shortening on the center of each design that faces out off the mat. This keeps the design from sliding off the vinyl when you tip it up to place it on your cake sides. Turn your Criket mat over above your vinyl and use the little Criket spatula (one of my favorite tools) to carefully loosen the design so that it falls on to the vinyl. You may have to reposition the pieces slightly as they fall. When all pieces are transferred, press lightly in the middle so that the shortening on the side facing down sticks enough to hold the design in place. Pick up the strip and position around cake pressing lightly to transfer the design on to the cake. The extra shortening from the mat is usually all you need but if you find that it does not want to stick, apply a very light coat of vegetable spray.

Sorry for being so long winded but detailed instructions from others helped me and I'd like to pass it forward!

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm excited to try it again when I get home from work. I think I might have been using too much crisco and my Satin Ice is really soft so I'll let it set up longer and if I have to I think I have some Wilton fondant sitting around somewhere.

Rosemary your cakes are beautiful, I love your roses!! I was considering buying the Make the Cut program but I held off since I couldn't get even the regular cricut patterns to cut. Now I feel ready to give it another try.

I'll have to work at transferring the images from the mat onto my cake then too but I like all the suggestions.

Where does Linda McClure teach? I'd love to take a class.

Here's her class schedule http://www.creativedesignsclasses.com/rich_text.html

So last night I finally got clean cuts with the Cricut - so exciting!! But I still had trouble getting them off the mat. More than half of them broke I'm guessing that my fondant became too dry and it got brittle. So for my next experiment I'll try not letting it set up so long, cutting and then removing. And maybe even less crisco, it seemed to stick too good to the mat. Just hope I master this by Friday.

Oh and I emailed Linda McClure. She doesn't have any classes in my area scheduled but she might be coming to NJ in the fall - yeah